Those Years When I Was Forced to Top the Forbes List

Chapter 270 Those Who Abandon Me

Before noon.

Office of the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Information Industry.

The heavy mahogany door was tightly closed, and the traffic on Chang'an Avenue outside the window was bustling, yet it felt as if I was isolated in another world.

"boom!"

Zhou Huan slammed a copy of the Economic Daily onto the coffee table. The headline on the front page, "China's Communication Standards Break Through Under Global Competition," was so glaring it seemed like a provocation.

"Minister Zhang, this is no longer just business competition; it's jeopardizing the foundation of the nation!"

Zhou Huan's voice was filled with suppressed anger, but every word was as if it had been chilled to the bone.

He didn't believe the "magical terminal" mentioned above at all. After all these years in the telecommunications industry, what "magical" terminals hadn't Datang seen?!

How can a party media outlet be so ignorant?

Return to the "best medium"!
Even the major mobile phone brands in the US and Europe have never dared to boast like this!

The Economic Daily News is simply using a pretext to attack them!

Vice Minister Zhang slowly picked up his teacup, the rising steam obscuring his expression: "Old Zhou, it's normal for the media to discuss technological routes. TD is a national strategy, but we should also allow different voices to exist."

"Different voices?" Zhou Huan sneered. "What right does Chen Xuebing, a private business owner, have to represent China's telecommunications standards? Spreadtrum's chips haven't even obtained network access licenses, yet they dare to boast about industrialization breakthroughs in official media? This is misleading major policy decisions!"

Vice Minister Zhang put down his teacup and tapped his fingertips lightly on the table twice: "Has the problem of dropped calls at Datang's base stations been resolved? China Mobile has been complaining for a long time. If TD can't even guarantee basic calls, how are we supposed to explain this to the government?"

Zhou Huan's pupils contracted.

This is the first time the Ministry of Information Industry has openly addressed this issue.

He leaned forward, the veins on the back of his hands bulging:

"Minister Zhang, when the TD project was launched in 2003, you personally said that the whole country should be mobilized to protect Datang! Now, we are besieged by Qualcomm's patents from the outside and disrupted by private capital from the inside. If the Ministry of Information Industry continues to condone this propaganda war..."

He paused deliberately and said, "I'm afraid the responsibility for the delayed issuance of 3G licenses is not something that Datang alone can bear."

Vice Minister Zhang suddenly smiled.

He then pulled a document out of the drawer:
"The Ministry of Information Industry and the Ministry of Science and Technology will be conducting research on Spreadtrum next week. Your Datang should send a technical team to accompany them."

Zhou Huan glanced at the document's heading—"Guiding Opinions on Promoting Collaborative Innovation in the TD-SCDMA Industry Chain"—and saw the joint seal of the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Information Industry affixed to the end.

"What do you mean?"

“What I mean is…” Vice Minister Zhang stood up and straightened his suit cuffs, “You’ve gone too far. You’ve even stopped Spreadtrum’s subsidy program from the Ministry of Science and Technology. Now Shanghai has already raised its concerns with the Ministry of Science and Technology. Lao Zhou, you need to understand that what the country wants is never for Datang to dominate the market, but for a technology alliance that can compete with Qualcomm. People are right to criticize it—closing the door to R&D is a dead end.”

Zhou Huan clenched his fists and suddenly saw a black Audi with a "京A8" license plate driving away from the compound outside the window.

It's an official vehicle belonging to the Ministry of Science and Technology.

“I’m helping you.” Vice Minister Zhang glanced back and saw that the car had already left. He then said leisurely, “Take a good look at Spreadtrum and see what shortcomings Datang has that can be compensated for… Only by improving the technology can the TD license be truly put into action.”

When Vice Minister Zhang spoke of “mutual compensation,” he spoke slowly and deliberately.

“Pick up that newspaper and take a good look. Spreadtrum Communications and Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications have already cooperated. Does Datang have Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications’ HSDPA agreement?” Vice Minister Zhang said, glancing at him.

“We’ve already communicated with Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications! That Nie Neng just won’t—” Zhou Huan paused, his eyes lighting up with joy: “If we can get this technology…”

Vice Minister Zhang nodded slowly, indicating that there was no need to say anything more, and picked up his teacup to sip his tea.

Zhou Huan's expression changed.

"grateful!"

When Chen Xuebing received the call from Chen Datong, he was still somewhat incredulous.

"It was solved so easily?"

Chen Datong laughed heartily: "Easy? Not at all! I went out of my way, contacted my old leaders from the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, and also raised my concerns with the city. They were smearing us in the market, how could we survive? Now it's all good! After the leaders from the two ministries come to inspect, we'll set a time for everyone to have a chance to compete fairly!"

Chen Xuebing scratched the back of his head: "Are the two ministries coming to inspect the telecom operators?"

"Sigh should be coming, right? The TD Alliance of 21 members is having a meeting in Shanghai, and the department leaders asked us to prepare the venue."

"Oh," Chen Xuebing nodded.

This alliance includes companies across the entire industry chain such as Datang, ZTE, Huawei, and Potevio; chip companies such as Spreadtrum and Kaiming; terminal companies such as Lenovo, Bird, Dbtek, and UTStarcom; and some equipment manufacturers, such as Tongyu Communication, which Zhou Guangping mentioned last time, the Shanghai joint venture of Alcott that acquired Lucent, and Hubei Zhongyou, etc.

There are quite a few large companies.

The fact that they're making such a big fuss is probably because they were planning to hold an industry conference anyway.

However, the fact that Spreadtrum was able to hold this meeting in Shanghai because of their research demonstrates that Spreadtrum has a lot of influence over them.

Spreadtrum truly stands alone in TD chip design.

Chen Xuebing didn't think Spreadtrum's team was really that top-notch. He could only say that the chip design industry was really short of people these days, and that putting together a team of 200 senior people was already the pinnacle in China.

His IC department currently has only about 20 senior employees leading a dozen or so new employees. With just over 30 people, they have to develop a single chip. They're constantly being pushed to work non-stop. I visited the other day and some of them had such greasy hair that they could fry vegetables. I heard they sleep on the floor at the company every night.

We really need to find ways to cultivate more professionals in this field.

Is Wang Jianzhou coming?

Chen Xuebing pondered whether or not to make a trip.

Chen Datong laughed: "If I solve this problem for you too, how long will it take you to get the Huaqiangbei sales business sorted out? There are more than two million chips stockpiled in the warehouse. It's almost the end of the month, and we still don't know whether to place an order with SMIC. If we place another two million, the company really won't have much money left."

A set of chips costs around sixty yuan to produce, and if 2 million are stockpiled, that's over 100 million yuan.

Chen Xuebing's face also darkened.

"Okay, you do your thing, I'll do mine. I'll give you an explanation before the end of the month."

I hung up the phone at 3 p.m.

Today, August 21st, the market rose slightly, by 0.2%.

1601 points.

With only a few trading days left until the end of the month, even if the price goes up, it shouldn't rise by much. After pondering for a moment, he called Lu Weibing.

"Notify the 15 bosses who joined Fund No. 3 to come to SEG Plaza to place an order before 8 pm tonight. Each person should place an order of 30. I will not hold you accountable for the previous order to MediaTek. For those who did not place an order, the previous agreement is null and void. They will be kicked out of the Spreadtrum Alliance and will never cooperate with them again. The fund has made a small profit of three percent. The money will be returned to the original account tomorrow morning."

As night fell...

On the 57th floor, in the CEO's office of Qidian, Chen Xuebing sat on the sofa with his legs crossed, looking very relaxed.

"A maximum of 20 orders, Mr. Chen. I really have no money left!" Zhao Wanping roared, his brows furrowed.

Chen Xuebing glanced at him but didn't say anything.

This bastard's fund has a whopping 1600 million yuan invested in it, with 15 people investing the most, enough to buy almost 20 chips.

"25! If you still have money, I'm your son!" Zhao Wanping stood up, looking like he was reaching into his pocket.

After saying that, he cautiously asked, "If I don't buy the fund, you won't refuse to refund my money, will you?"

Chen Xuebing's face twitched: "If that's what you think, then you don't need to order it. I'll refund you tomorrow morning."

"No way!" Zhao Wanping immediately waved his hand: "I'd rather die than back out! We haven't even made any money yet, why would I back out! You must know there's a market upturn, that's why you're threatening us like this! I believe you!"

Chen Xuebing gave a soft snort.

Damn it, you can't say he's stupid; he's actually quite smart.

He glanced at his watch; it was almost time. He asked, "..."

How many orders are there?

Lu Weibing picked up the form in front of him, frowned, and said, "Chen Jinling has put down 50, Qiu Yushan, Liu Feng, Chaozhou Huang, and Li Weijian have each put down 30, and General Manager Zhao has put down 25."

Chen Xuebing read the name "Chen Jinling" aloud, stood up, and said calmly, "Understood. Send the rest of the list to President Kan."

After saying that, he put his hands in his pockets and went to his office.

The stock market is rising slowly, but Mr. Chen has his own ways to make it rise faster.

"Old Kan, here's the list Lu Weibing sent you. Withdraw your money tomorrow morning, and adjust the remaining holdings of Fund No. 3 as well, and buy all of it into Oceanwide Construction."

“We’ll take 100 million from Fund No. 2 and wait for the money from Fund No. 3 to buy in before we start driving up the price.”

"Don't worry, the bull market won't trap people."

After nine people withdrew from Fund No. 9, only 6500 million remained.

The stock 000046, which was a 20-fold bull stock in its previous life, has also begun its ascent ahead of schedule.

In just two days, Southwest Securities' Ruitian Road branch appeared on the buy list twice, purchasing 1.65 million yuan worth of shares. The two consecutive limit-up days completely ignited the market sentiment.

Long March Capital makes its move!

On the third day, it still hit the daily limit up.

The fourth day, still.

The stock market rose for three out of the last four days, reaching a high of 1623 points.

Still going on!

The following Monday, August 28, the market rebounded across the board, with 1100 stocks rising, a gain of 1.7%, and the index reaching 1651 points!
Despite strong market sentiment, trading volume reached a high of 200 billion, a level not seen for a long time.

Oceanwide Construction's stock price continues to rise to the daily limit, and there are already millions of orders, making it impossible to squeeze in!

"Ha ha ha ha."

Zhao Wanping sat in Chen Xuebing's office and laughed wildly.

"1168 million! I made 1600 million, and in one week, I earned 1168 million!"

The office sofas were full of people, and the atmosphere was thick with bitterness.

A few laugh, a dozen or so grieve.

They now understood how Long March Capital achieved a fivefold return in a year.

MediaTek chips are $0.5 cheaper per chip, which is 4 yuan. With the money Zhao Wanping earned in the fund this week, they would need to buy 300 million chips to make up for it!
The changes in Huaqiangbei this week are not limited to this.

Stores offering 3G upgrades for Spreadtrum chips have reopened, all the previous notices from Datang have disappeared, and many new billboards have appeared in the market:
Spreadtrum hosts TD Industry Economic Annual Conference: 3G, far ahead!

"Mr. Chen, please just consider us as having been ignorant before."

After a moment of silence, someone spoke up, their voice hoarse.

“Yes, Mr. Chen, where can you not want cheap goods?” someone said confidently.

Chen Xuebing ignored him and stood in front of his desk, writing calligraphy by himself.

After a long while, he finished the last stroke.

"Ren Ying, take this and frame it for me."

Ren Ying walked to the table, a strange look in her eyes.

It's written quite well, with strong, vigorous characters.

—Make up for what's missing; Mr. Chen actually practiced that for a while in his previous life.

Only after she picked it up did everyone see the two words on it.

Integrity.

"We're all business people, why talk about being sensible or not?"